Writing

It would seem I’ve regained the ability to write more frequently and regularly despite my health hassles

My Preference

Normally I write posts for this blog by hand using a pen, Tomoe River paper and a clipboard. Sadly, my health hassles make this approach to writing very difficult and I do not have the capacity to write using analog methods regularly or reliably. Over the last few years I’ve had to patiently wait for windows when my health hassles doesn’t interfere with my writing. With analog I have to slowly write blog posts over the course of weeks and sometimes months. It’s quite frustrating but I enjoy writing and refuse to give it up, even if frustrated by my health hassles.

What’s Within?

This post lays out how I research topics. I’ve struggled with “research” in the past and, thanks to a friend, finally figured out a methodology that actually works for me. This post goes through my methodology, how I use it with success and the details needed to recreate and/or adapt it.

Table of Contents

What / Why / How

Important Context

Over the years I never really figured out how to research a topic properly. Basically if I needed to research anything I just sort of went digging around the internet, read books, read published articles and similar but didn’t really take notes or create summaries or similar. At best I’d catalog very basic snippets that I could turn into something actually useful at a later date.

What’s Within?

Within is a walk through of all things analog and digital that I put together to be effective with notebooks and organizers. Things I’ve cataloged, setup, used, tinkered with and more. It even includes the how and why of my personal needs, preferences and opinions.

In short: it’s a very long breakdown of everything that actually works for me as well as many things that didn’t work for me. Think “Kemo’s Notebook & Organizer Autobiography”.

Editors note: KemoNine wrote this post before realizing they had already written Digital Writing Tablet Mini Review 3 ish months ago. Some information below overlaps with the prior blog post but the core of this particular post is how KemoNine is using a drawing tablet day to day for handwriting.

Prelude

Let’s get this out of the way up front: I am a pen and paper human at heart. Despite being labeled a ’tech nerd’ I use pen and paper as a default medium. I do have some health hassles (read: serious, chronic health issues) that prevent me from using pen and paper with the frequency I desire and, arguably, need in order to stay on top of daily life and more.

This post is about 2 different writing tablets. The Wacom One and XP Pen G430S. Both are very small drawing tablets.

I bought both of these recently to help me with note taking on my computer. For my $dayJob I do a lot of implementation work and I regularly receive PDF specifications that I need to annotate. I’m also a remote worker (work from home) so I can’t just print the files and use a pen to annotate. I also can’t ‘break the glass’ in terms of moving data between my $dayJob environment and personal environment so I need some kind of drawing tablet so I can annotate PDFs as part of my job duties. I also need competent note taking software with a focus on handwritten notes as well as a tablet that has enough precision to allow me to write in cursive or printing within my chosen note taking application.

Good Intention, Failure Imminent

I intended to write a post about all the systems and ideas I’ve tried over the years. Instead it was more appropriate to call bullshit and tell you it’s a brain wiring problem and until you find something that ‘clicks’ it’ll just be failure after failure and soul crushing.

This post is meant to inspire you to think about organization systems and let you know that you’re not alone with this topic. It’s a non-trivial concern for people and it can take a long time to find a good organization system tuned to an individuals needs. Don’t worry: I’ll let you know what works for me but it’s not dogma, gospel, the best or anything else. What I use to stay organized works for me, I have no illusions it’s a strange system that won’t work for most humans walking the planet.

Forward

It’s been many, many solar cycles since I found myself embarking upon the analog writing path. During these cycles I have managed to dial in my preferences and have found many supplies I may not like much but are great recommendations for others. I’ve also encountered some odd supplies that are worth calling attention towards.

I’ve never kept my love of Tamoe River Paper (link) a secret. I’d have posted about it specifically but I’ve never really had anything to say beyond an ultra mini review of ‘This stuff is AMAZING, BUY NOW’. It’s the perfect loose leaf paper: cheap, thin, easy to work with and translucent.

Why?

I spend a lot of time outdoors. I may be a geek/nerd but I like being outdoors and actually spend time outside. One thing that rarely stops me is the weather. Because of this I can end up outside in the rain or during a blizzard. This is a big reason I only buy archive grade and water resistant inks and papers.

I recently picked up a Monteverde USA Tool Pen Inkball (link). The pen is, uh.

One of the worst pens I’ve laid hands on

I cracked the box open, discovered there were no ink cartridges or adapters and… it didn’t get better once I ordered a converter and some standard international mini ink cartridges.